Sanhedrin
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The Sanhedrin (
There were two classes of Rabbinite courts that were called Sanhedrin: Great Sanhedrin and Lesser Sanhedrin. A lesser Sanhedrin of 23 judges was appointed to sit as a tribunal in each city, but there was only supposed to be one Great Sanhedrin of 71 judges, which among other roles acted as a supreme court, taking appeals from cases which were decided by lesser courts. In general usage, the Sanhedrin without qualifier normally refers to the Great Sanhedrin, which was presided over by the Nasi, who functioned as its head or representing president, and was a member of the court; the Av Beit Din or the chief of the court, who was second to the nasi; and 69 general members.
In the
).After the destruction of the
Over the centuries, there have been attempts to revive the institution, such as the
Hebrew Bible
In the Hebrew Bible, Moses and the Israelites were commanded by God to establish courts of judges.[2] They were also commanded to establish a "supreme court" located at the central sanctuary (after arriving in the Land of Israel), to handle cases too difficult for local courts.[3]
When Moses declared that the task of leading the people was too difficult for him, God had him appoint 70 elders (zekenim) to share the burden of leadership with him.[4] According to the Mishnah, these 70 elders plus Moses himself are the source for the 71 judges of the "Great Sanhedrin".[5] These elders are described as "the elders of the people and its officers",[6] according to a midrash, they were the same officers who were beaten in Egyptian slavery for failing to meet Pharaoh's quota of bricks, and after the Exodus were rewarded with membership on the first Sanhedrin.[7]
The 23 judges of the "Lesser Sanhedrin" are derived from the following exegesis: it must be possible for a "community" to vote for both conviction and exoneration (Numbers 35:24–5). The minimum size of a "community" is 10 men,[8] thus 10 vs 10. One more is required to achieve a majority (11 vs. 10), but a simple majority cannot convict (Exodus 23:2), and so an additional judge is required (12 vs. 10). Finally, a court should have an odd number of judges to prevent deadlocks; thus 23 rather than 22.[5]
History
Early Sanhedrin
The first historic mention of a Synedrion (Greek: Συνέδριον) occurs in the Psalms of Solomon (17:49), a Jewish religious book translated into Greek.
The Hasmonean court in Judea, presided over by Alexander Jannaeus, until 76 BCE, followed by his wife, Queen Salome Alexandra, was called Synhedrion or Sanhedrin.[9] The exact nature of this early Sanhedrin is not clear. It may have been a body of sages or priests, or a political, legislative and judicial institution. The first historical record of the body was during the administration of Aulus Gabinius, who, according to Josephus, organized five synedra in 57 BCE as Roman administration was not concerned with religious affairs unless sedition was suspected.[10] Only after the destruction of the Second Temple was the Sanhedrin made up only of sages.[9]
Josephus describes a synhedrion for the first time in connection with the decree of the Roman governor of Syria, Aulus Gabinius (57 BCE), who abolished the constitution and the then existing form of government of Palestine and divided the country into five provinces, at the head of each of which a synhedrion was placed; Jerusalem was the seat of one of these.[11] Later, Josephus describes Herod (at the time governor of Galilee) as being summoned before the synhedrion, led by High Priest Hyrcanus II, due to having executed alleged criminals without permission from the synhedrion.[12] Eventually, though, Herod would go on to kill many members of this synhedrion.[13]
The
The trial of Jesus, and early Christianity
A Synhedrion is mentioned 22 times in the Greek New Testament, including in the Gospels in relation to the trial of Jesus, and in the Acts of the Apostles, which mentions a "Great Synhedrion" in chapter 5 where rabbi Gamaliel appeared, and also in chapter 7 in relation to the stoning death of Saint Stephen. This body is described as a court led by the High Priest or leading priests, as well as the "elders" and/or Pharisees.[15]
During Jewish–Roman Wars
After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the Sanhedrin was re-established in
The seat of the Patriarchate moved to
After Bar Kokhba Revolt
Rabbinic texts indicate that following the
The Great Sanhedrin moved in 140 to
During the presidency of Gamaliel IV (270–290), due to Roman persecution, it dropped the name Sanhedrin; and its authoritative decisions were subsequently issued under the name of Beth HaMidrash.[citation needed]
In the year 363, the emperor
However, since the Hebrew calendar was based on witnesses' testimony, which had become far too dangerous to collect, rabbi Hillel II recommended change to a mathematically based calendar that was adopted at a clandestine, and maybe final, meeting in 358 CE. This marked the last universal decision made by the Great Sanhedrin.
Gamaliel VI (400–425) was the Sanhedrin's last president. With his death in 425, Theodosius II outlawed the title of Nasi, the last remains of the ancient Sanhedrin. An imperial decree of 426 diverted the patriarchs' tax (post excessum patriarchorum) into the imperial treasury.[19] The exact reason for the abrogation of the patriarchate is not clear,[20] though Gamaliel VI, the last holder of the office who had been for a time elevated by the emperor to the rank of prefect,[21] may have fallen out with the imperial authorities.[20] Thereafter, Jews were gradually excluded from holding public office.[22]
Powers
The Talmud tractate Sanhedrin identifies two classes of rabbinical courts called Sanhedrin, a Great Sanhedrin (בית דין הגדול) and a Lesser Sanhedrin (בית דין הקטן). Each city could have its own lesser Sanhedrin of 23 judges, but there could be only one Great Sanhedrin of 71, which among other roles acted as the Supreme Court, taking appeals from cases decided by lesser courts. The uneven numbers of judges were predicated on eliminating the possibility of a tie, and the last to cast his vote was the head of the court.
Function and procedures
The Sanhedrin as a body claimed powers that lesser Jewish courts did not have. As such, they were the only ones who could try the king, extend the boundaries of the Temple and Jerusalem, and were the ones to whom all questions of law were finally put. Before 191 BCE the
During the Second Temple period, the Sanhedrin met in a building known as the Hall of Hewn Stones (Lishkat ha-Gazit), which has been placed by the Talmud and many scholars as built into the northern wall of the Temple Mount, half inside the sanctuary and half outside, with doors providing access variously to the Temple and to the outside. The name presumably arises to distinguish it from the buildings in the Temple complex used for ritual purposes, which could not be constructed of stones hewn by any iron implement.
In some cases, it was necessary only for a 23-member panel (functioning as a Lesser Sanhedrin) to convene. In general, the full panel of 71 judges was convened only on matters of national significance (e.g., a declaration of war) or when the 23-member panel failed to reach a conclusive verdict.[25]
By the end of the Second Temple period, the Sanhedrin reached its pinnacle of importance, legislating all aspects of Jewish religious and political life within parameters laid down by Biblical and Rabbinic tradition.
Summary of Patriarchal powers
The following is a summary of the powers and responsibilities of the Patriarchate from the onset of the third century, based on rabbinic sources as understood by L.I. Levine:[26]
- Representative to Imperial authorities;
- Focus of leadership in the Jewish community:
- Receiving daily visits from prominent families;
- Declaration of public fast days;
- Initiating or abrogating the ban (herem);
- Appointment of judges to Jewish courts in the Land of Israel;
- Regulation of the calendar;
- Issuing enactments and decrees with respect to the applicability or release from legal requirements, e.g.:
- Use of sabbatical year produce and applicability of sabbatical year injunctions;
- Repurchase or redemption of formerly Jewish land from gentile owners;
- Status of Hellenistic cities of the Land of Israel re: purity, tithing, sabbatical year;
- Exemptions from tithing;
- Conditions in divorce documents;
- Use of oil produced by gentiles;
- Dispatching emissaries to diaspora communities;
- Taxation: both the power to tax and the authority to rule/intervene on the disposition of taxes raised for local purposes by local councils.
Up to the middle of the fourth century, the Patriarchate retained the prerogative of determining the
Archaeological findings
In 2004, excavations in Tiberias conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered a structure dating to the 3rd century CE that may have been the seat of the Sanhedrin when it convened in that city. At the time it was called Beit Hava'ad.[29]
Nasi (president)
Before 191 BCE the
Being a member of the house of
President | Term in office | |
---|---|---|
Yose ben Yoezer |
170 BCE | 140 BCE |
Joshua ben Perachyah |
140 BCE | 100 BCE |
Simeon ben Shetach | 100 BCE | 60 BCE |
Shmaya | 65 BCE | c. 31 BCE |
Hillel the Elder | c. 31 BCE | 9 CE |
Rabban Shimon ben Hillel |
9 | ? |
Rabban Gamaliel the Elder |
30 | 50 |
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel |
50 | 70 |
Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai | 70 | 80 |
Rabban Gamaliel II of Yavne | 80 | 118 |
Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah | 118 | 120 |
Interregnum (Bar Kokhba revolt) | 120 | 142 |
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel II |
142 | 165 |
Rabbi Judah I HaNasi (ThePresident) |
165 | 220 |
Gamaliel III | 220 | 230 |
Judah II Nesi'ah | 230 | 270 |
Gamaliel IV | 270 | 290 |
Judah III Nesi'ah | 290 | 320 |
Hillel II | 320 | 365 |
Gamaliel V | 365 | 385 |
Judah IV | 385 | 400 |
Gamaliel VI | c. 400 | 425 |
Revival attempts
Since the dissolution of the Sanhedrin in or around 358 CE, there have been several attempts to re-establish it.
There are records of what may have been attempts to reform the Sanhedrin in Arabia,[30] in Jerusalem under the Caliph Umar,[30] and in Babylon (Iraq),[31] but none of these attempts were given attention by later rabbinic authorities and little information is available about them.
Napoleon Bonaparte's "Grand Sanhedrin"
The "Grand Sanhedrin" was a Jewish high court convened by
On 6 October 1806, the Assembly of Notables issued a proclamation to all the Jewish communities of Europe, inviting them to send delegates to the Sanhedrin, to convene on 20 October. This proclamation, written in Hebrew, French, German, and Italian, speaks in extravagant terms of the importance of this revived institution and of the greatness of its imperial protector. While the action of Napoleon aroused in many Jews of Germany the hope that, influenced by it, their governments also would grant them the rights of citizenship, others looked upon it as a political contrivance. When in the war against Prussia (1806–07) the emperor invaded Poland and the Jews rendered great services to his army, he remarked, laughing, "The sanhedrin is at least useful to me."[citation needed] David Friedländer and his friends in Berlin described it as a spectacle that Napoleon offered to the Parisians.
See also
- Council of Jamnia
- Beth din shel Kohanim
- Great Assembly – or Anshei Knesset HaGedolah ('Men of the Great Assembly')
- Magnum Concilium, a similar body in medieval England
- Hellenistic city statesand treaty organisations.
- Tombs of the Sanhedrin
References
- ^ "Greek Lexicon :: G4892 (KJV)". Blue Letter Bible.
- ^ Exodus 18:21–22, Deuteronomy 1:15–18
- ^ Deuteronomy 17:9–12
- ^ Numbers 11:16–17,24–25
- ^ a b Mishnah, Sanhedrin 1:6
- ^ Numbers 11:16
- ^ Rashi, Exodus 5:14
- ^ The Hebrew term "community" appears in Numbers 14:27; i.e., the 10 spies who had spread a bad report about the land, thus a "community" is 10 men.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-394-50110-9.
- ^ Mantel, Hugo. (1972) "Sanhedrin". in Encyclopaedia Judaica. Jerusalem: Macmillan. 14, p. 836
- ^ Antiquities 14:5 § 4
- ^ Antiquities 14:167-180
- ^ Antiquities 14:175
- ^ Sanhedrin 4:2
- ^ Grabbe, Lester L. "Sanhedrin, Sanhedriyyot, or Mere Invention?" Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period 39, no. 1 (2008): 1–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24670033.
- ISBN 978-0-88920-375-4. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, 23.1.2–3.
- ^ See "Julian and the Jews 361–363 CE" and "Julian the Apostate and the Holy Temple" Archived 2005-10-20 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-674-39731-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-15-100302-0. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ a b c d public domain: Abrahams, Israel (1911). "Jews". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 487–410, see page 403.
III.—From the Dispersion to Modern Times
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the - ^ Alfred Edersheim (1856). History of the Jewish nation after the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus. T. Constable and co. p. 551. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ ISBN 0-89906-454-X.
- ^ "Sanhedrin". CUNY. Archived from the original on 2006-05-19.
- ^ Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 2a.
- ISBN 978-0-88920-375-4. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-7618-3635-3. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ Isaac Landman (1941). The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: an authoritative and popular presentation of Jews and Judaism since the earliest times. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, inc. p. 399. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ "Researchers say Tiberias basilica may have housed Sanhedrin". Haaretz. 22 March 2004.
- ^ a b The Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614 compared with Islamic conquest of 638
- ^ Sefer Yuchsin, cf. Yarchei Kallah, Rabbi Nassan describes "the seventy judges who comprise the Sanhedrin".
Bibliography
- Cohen, S.J.D., "Patriarchs and Scholarchs," PAAJR 48 (1981), 57–85.
- Goodman, M., "The Roman State and the Jewish Patriarch in the Third Century," in L.I. Levnie (ed.), The Galilee in late Antiquity (New York, 1992), 127.39.
- Habas (Rubin), E., "Rabban Gamaliel of Yavneh and his Sons: The Patriarchate before and after the Bar Kokhva Revolt," JJS 50 (1999), 21–37.
- Levine, L.I., "The Patriarch (Nasi) in Third-Century Palestine," ANRW 2.19.2 (1979), 649–88.
External links
public domain: Abrahams, Israel (1911). "Jews". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 487–410, see page 403. III.—From the Dispersion to Modern Times
- Secular and religious history of the Jewish Sanhedrin
- English web site of the re-established Jewish Sanhedrin in Israel
- The Jewish Court System by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
- Jewish Encyclopedia: "Sanhedrin"
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .